"Jerry Sohl - I, Aleppo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sohl Jerry)

become head of the Volunteers. The Volunteers among us have moved
into trouble areas from time to time, such as those with diviners or
psychics who would conjure one of Us up in seances for their own delight
or the amusement of others. We have pulled mediums through to this
side to become Beings here leaving their mortal remains behind— and at
last they have understood how it is with Us! We have done the same for
spiritualists, spectrals, clairvoyants, and those who do have special
powers and seem to be able to catch glimpses of those of Us in the Pool.

I will not deny it: some among Us seek a reality more vivid than
dreams, more like the lives they once had. These malcontents defy Pool
tradition and dominion and return to human life by invading a newborn
in order to be its life essence. When they do this they erase their Pool
Being. When the host they have entered dies, they return to Us again,
without memory of their former Pool consciousness. I would not want to
change what I was, what I am, what I will be for eternity.

I will kill first.

The thought of returning to a host body is repugnant to me. I have
lived one life, and that is enough. I would not now want to be inhabited
by another Being the way humans are sometimes if We so desire or their
dream requires it. I think it against all Pool ethics to deny life to an
embryo essence by taking possession of a host body-to-be. I have seen too
many Beings return defeated or damaged. I have also seen hosts
diminished and unfulfilled all their lives without knowing the reason.

It is better to be what each Being is meant to be: a dream person.
Sometimes, if We fancy, We share with the host what We feel—hate,
fear, lust, shame, cruelty. Sometimes We are him whom We enter as he
sleeps. Sometimes We are his enemy because he needs to fight or
overcome or be overcome. Sometimes We let him have his way.
Sometimes We do not.

Sometimes We kill him.

Adrea nearly killed the young man who dreamed he was a
high-ranking general during World War II. Word spread quickly in the
Consciousness Pool and I, Aleppo, was summoned. Adrea felt the
grasping and grappling and she was surprised because she had never
felt such power before.

We both stared down at the young man in the swimming pool. If he
had not been taken from us by the humans who have discovered how to
operate such dreams, we would have killed him.

We must be alert. The next one to invade our area, the next one sent to
pry, to seek our secrets, must die.

I will gladly kill whoever he or she is. As a Volunteer, I took that